Ruth Starsmeare’s Post

This philosophy will change how you lead.   (it’s only 3 words) “Use the difficulty.” Here’s how Michael Caine discovered it: As a young actor, he was rehearsing a scene when a chair got stuck in the doorway and blocked his entrance.   He told the other actor he couldn’t get through. The actor’s response: “Use the difficulty. If it’s a comedy, fall over it. If it’s a drama, pick it up and smash it.” Caine says this became his philosophy: “There’s never anything so bad that you cannot use that difficulty… if you can use it a quarter of one percent to your advantage, you’re ahead. You didn’t let it get you down.” My take: Leaders meet a “stuck chair” every week. Missed targets, blocked decisions, hard conversations. You can’t control when it appears. You can control what you do with it. Here’s how to apply this when the next difficulty shows up: 1. Pause before reacting.   2. Name the constraint out loud.   3. Ask, “What can we use here?”   4. Build the lesson into the system so it sticks. Save this for the moment you need it. Send it to someone in a tough week.  Difficulty is inevitable. Your edge is how fast you use it.  What “stuck chair” did you face recently, and how did you use it?  ♻ Repost to help more leaders lead through difficulty.   ➕ Follow Liam Darmody for more.